1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collaborative work support system and particularly to a collaborative work support system which can provide an environment to implement communication with a suitable party on the basis of a work area designated as required by each user on the occasion of making communication among plural users through computers in the virtual work space on a network connecting the plural computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
With rapid propagation of the Intranet and Internet in recent years, the environment for execution of works through cooperation by plural users in the virtual space on a network is now being established. Under this condition, users generally have intensive desire to smoothly complete their own works while making suitable communication with the other users in identical work condition depending on the work which is now in execution.
The related arts to sequentially and dynamically change the communication partners depending on work conditions of users at a certain timing can be classified into the following three methods from the functional viewpoint.
The first method is to change a communication partner on the basis of the preset information. In this first method, the environment to dynamically change the communication partner is offered to users by selecting each time the condition registered in advance.
For example, the group environment setting method and system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 9-034844 discloses that group names and corresponding environment setting information (access right, software used, menu setting, etc.) are registered in advance and communication environment based on the environment setting information related to such groups is offered when users designate the registered group name.
Moreover, the collaborative work starting apparatus described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 7-210513 is capable of providing communication environment to users by registering user information (user name and terminal name) table and application information (application name and starting system) in advance and by extracting, based on the information preset to each table, the communication partner when users designate group member and name of application used.
The second method is that a communication partner is searched in the virtual reality and it is then changed. For example, in the human interface system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-095997, there are provided a human interface system which has a function to implement the actions identical to that in the actual world as well as a communication environment to change as required the communication partner while users are confirming virtual rooms and members on the display area.
In addition, the FreeWalk (Proceedings of the ACM Conference on CSCW ""96, Kyoto University) provides a communication environment using videos and voices to change the communication partner as required when users are going to become near or further to the other users by providing the two-dimensional map and virtual three-dimensional space for confirming the position of communication partner.
The third method is to change communication partner through selection of reference information. For instance, the reference xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STORING AND RETRIEVING COLLABORATIVELY PROCESSED INFORMATION BY ASSOCIATED IDENTIFICATION DATAxe2x80x9d described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,507 provides a communication environment which can change as required a communication partner based on the communication mode selected by users by presenting to users some communication devices (such as telephone set, electronic bulletin board) in advance.
Moreover, the communication system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-128343 provides a communication environment to change as required a communication partner based on the partner selected by users and communication mode by presenting some communication devices and other users who are simultaneously making reference to information of WWW (World Wide Web) server.
In addition, Piazza (SunSoft, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on CSCW ""96) provides the environment for making communication with users as required through multimedia communication by presenting users who are accessing the same information among the dispersed communities, users who are satisfying the preset condition and users who are taking part in a project.
Moreover, although not a method to dynamically change a communication partner, it is also proposed as a method for finding out the communication partner depending on the work condition of users to use a document retrieving apparatus for the document retrieval by utilizing a keyword. Namely, in the document retrieving apparatus including a WWW robot, the entire part of similar documents are extracted by comparing the keyword input by a user with all keywords included in the document information for static document information accumulated previously in the database on the network. Thereby, the communication partner in relation to the work which is executed in current by a user can be extracted.
However, these related arts have the following problems. First, since communication groups and communication environments must be set in advance, it is impossible to provide an environment which can always implement communication with the belt partner considering the work condition of a user which changes from time to time. In other words, every possible condition must be assumed and detail settings must also be done in advance depending on such conditions in order to provide an environment which always assures the communication with the best partner considering the work conditions. However, numerous condition settings are required for this purpose and moreover such setting must also be done in advance. Therefore, in fact, it is impossible in the first method that to generate dynamic communication group depending on work condition of users.
In the second method, although it is not required, unlike the first method, to set the detail conditions in advance, since the communication group is generated only with the virtual positional information of each user, namely with the coordinates information at the time of generating a communication group, whether the communication partner is in the same work condition as own condition cannot be known until the actual communication with partner is started. Therefore, if the communication partner is isolated in the virtual space even if the partner is in the identical work condition, a user cannot make communication with such partner. Accordingly, even with the second method, it is impossible to solve the problem that a user can always make communication with an adequate partner in the suitable work condition matched with own condition.
In the third method, the condition to make reference to the same file on the virtual space is used in place of the coordinates information used in the second method. However, even in this method, if there are plural different files on the virtual space, although these are entirely identical in contents, users are never registered to the communication group even when such users are executing the works of the identical contents. Namely, in this case, it is a serious problem that communication cannot be implemented. Moreover, in the third method, since the information suggesting a part of the file in which users are interested is not yet detected, if a certain user is interested with different part of the file, here rises a problem that such a user is registered to the communication group because this user is observing the identical file. Therefore, even with the third method, it is impossible to solve the problem that a user cannot implement the communication with an adequate partner depending on the condition of own work.
Moreover, in the method for generating communication groups using a document retrieving apparatus, when a user desires to execute a certain retrieval operation in the ordinary document retrieving apparatus, the user is requested to input the retrieval condition by himself. It is because a user is always requested, on the occasion of retrieving the communication partner, to detect his own work condition to extract the keyword corresponding to such a work condition in view of inputting this keyword to the system. Accordingly, when the ordinary document retrieving apparatus is used, a user is requested to temporarily stop the work being executed and to retrieve a communication partner. Therefore, here rises a problem that the work which shall be executed by a user cannot be performed smoothly. Next, even for the keyword which is input by a user, in the ordinary document retrieving apparatus, a retrieval result is guided, for all documents as the retrieval object, only from similarity to all keywords included in each sentence. Namely, in the ordinary document retrieving apparatus, since only the calculation for similarity to the keywords included in the whole sentences is performed, it is impossible to cut and present only a part of the most matched document for the keywords which have been input by users. Therefore, for example, even when an apparatus which can present names of users which are making reference to the common information is additionally provided to the document retrieving apparatus, only the names of users who are making reference to the document as a whole being matched to the keywords being input are presented. This phenomenon is identical to the problem that users who are interested in a totally different part of the document are also registered as the members of the optimum communication group as is described in the third method for changing the communication partner through selection of the reference information. Finally, the ordinary document retrieving apparatus has a problem that when retrieval is once ended, contents of change are not reflected on the result of retrieval, for example, even when a user has conducted update work to the common document. Namely, since it is a precondition of the ordinary document retrieving apparatus that the retrieval is once conducted for static document information, the result of change is never reflected in direct on the result of retrieval for the result which is retrieved once by a user even if document information is changed later in any way as required. This problem suggests the intrinsic problem that the best communication partner cannot always be attained depending on the user work which will be changed from time to time. For example, such a problem also suggests that it is often generated that when a certain user has started communication with a partner selected as the best partner, but this partner has already shifted to another work.
The present invention has been proposed considering the above circumstances and discloses a collaborative work support system which can implement communication with an appropriate partner depending on the condition of a work which is currently executed by a user in the collaborative work performed on the virtual space.
In view of solving the problems of the related arts, the present invention discloses a collaborative work support system for supporting communication among plural users who are executing collaborative works on a network by utilizing computer terminals.
The collaborative work support system has a work area detection unit for detecting work areas of users during execution of a collaborative work, a user viewpoint calculation unit for extracting, from the work areas detected by the work area detection unit, the keywords included in the work areas in order to calculate viewpoint information of each user, and a dynamic communication group generation unit for dynamically generating communication groups by collecting users having similar viewpoints based on the user viewpoint information calculated by the user viewpoint calculating unit.
According to this collaborative work support system, during a collaborative work on a network, the work area detection unit detects the work area of a user depending on work contents of each user and a keyword included in the area detected by the user viewpoint calculation unit is extracted as the user viewpoint information. This user viewpoint information is sent to the dynamic communication group generation unit. Here, the keyword included in this user viewpoint information is compared with the keyword included in the viewing information of another user to generate a dynamic communication group by collecting users having similar keywords. This communication group provides the environment in which the best partner of communication can always be found depending on the work condition of each user.
Moreover, according to one aspect of the present invention, the system further has a dynamic communication session control unit for establishing a two-way communication channel for all members of the communication groups generated by the dynamic communication group generation unit to generate an environment assuring communication among the relevant group members and also executing the control for the generated environment. Thereby, the environment for always assuring communication with the best partner depending on work condition of each user can be provided.
Moreover, according to another aspect of the present invention, the manipulation for the work which is thought to be particularly executed at the user""s apparent will, namely manipulation of the user for displaying information on his own computer terminal or manipulation for designating a certain area on the user""s own computer terminal is detected from the common area used by the collaborative work on the network by the work area detection unit. When such a work is executed, text information, voice information, graphic information, image information and video information included in this area are extracted and information about the work area of that user is uniquely determined.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the dynamic communication group generation unit may be configured by a user viewpoint information storage unit for accumulating current viewpoint information of users and a group generation unit for comparing the keyword included in newly accumulated viewpoint information with the keywords having been accumulated in other viewing information accumulated in the user viewpoint information storage unit every time the user viewpoint information is accumulated, and generating the dynamic communication group based on the similarity of such keywords.
Moreover, according to another aspect of the present invention, the dynamic communication session control unit may be configured by a communication session generation unit for establishing a two-way communication channel for all members of each group to generate group information to implement communication based on the information regarding the communication groups generated by the dynamic communication group generation unit, a group information storage unit for accumulating the group information generated by the communication session generation unit, and a communication session deletion unit for calculating the number of members of group for the group information accumulated by the group information storage unit and deleting, when the calculated number of members is 1, the information about that group from the group information storage unit to vanish the communication session.
Moreover, according to another aspect of the present invention, the dynamic communication group generation unit further has a grouping condition registration unit for causing users to designate communication group generation conditions and a grouping condition application unit for applying the generation conditions registered by the grouping condition registration unit at the time of generation of the communication groups. Thereby, the environment in which communication may always be executed with the best partner depending on the work condition of each user while the communication group based on the generation condition registered by a user himself is being generated.
Moreover, according to another aspect of the present invention, the dynamic communication session control unit can further be provided with a communication session permanent holding/canceling registration unit for causing users to visualize and display the group information of a dynamic communication group stored by the group information storage unit and also causing users to register the permanent holding or canceling of the communication session by designating a particular communication group, a communication session permanent holding unit for permanently holding the communication session by forcibly causing all members of the designated communication group to use continuously the two-way communication channel when the permanent holding registration is made by the communication session permanent holding/canceling registration unit and a communication session permanent holding canceling unit for canceling, when the permanent holding canceling registration is made by the communication session permanent holding/canceling registration unit, the permanent holding of the relevant session by canceling the forced continuous use of the two-way communication channel for all members of the group if the designated communication group is the group being held permanently by the communication session permanent holding/canceling unit. Thereby, there is provided the environment in which communication with the best partner can always be executed while a user executes, as required, the dynamic fixing and canceling of the communication group.
Moreover, according to another aspect of the present invention, there are further provided, in the communication groups generated by the dynamic communication group generation, a message information storage unit for storing, as a history, message information exchanged among the group members and a message information history providing unit for providing the history of message information stored in the message information storage unit at the request from users. Thereby, the environment in which communication with the best partner can always be executed while users are making reference to the message information exchanged in the past as required can be provided.